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Auburn Hills Police Department entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
Auburn Hills Police Department starts at $71,863 a year — about $34.55 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,596 above the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $3,078 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Michigan run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $74,689 would somewhere at average prices — $2,825 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 82 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
How big the department isAuburn Hills Police Department reported 48 sworn officers and 6 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.8 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 26,488.A rate is only meaningful for a city department, where the population served is the city’s own. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
What Auburn Hills says about itself
The Auburn Hills Police Department (AHPD) provides the highest level of professional law enforcement services to the residents, businesses, students and visitors to the City of Auburn Hills. AHPD prides itself on a community policing oriented approach to law enforcement with personnel routinely interacting with people in the city, hosting trainings around the city and providing a wide variety of law enforcement related programs.
What Auburn Hills does
The Auburn Hills Police Department polices 16.64 square miles of Oakland County north of Detroit, a city of 26,488 residents that also carries Oakland University, Chrysler's headquarters and the Great Lakes Crossing outlets, and it answers nearly 30,000 calls a year. It reports 56 sworn personnel and the FBI's 2025 return counts 48; a Chief, a Deputy Chief and three administrative Lieutenants command the divisions. Beyond patrol it runs a K-9 unit, a Narcotics Enforcement Team, a Special Investigations Unit, school resource and community engagement officers, and supplies officers to the Oakland County SWAT team, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force and a human trafficking task force. Patrol works rotating twelve-hour shifts with every other weekend off, and officers may use the department gym on duty.
Auburn Hills’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The City lists the schedule with the money on its own recruiting page: "Rotating 12-hour shifts with every other weekend off", alongside 2026 top base pay of $96,616, three years to top pay, a take-home gym on duty and an indoor range. The same page names the specialty routes off patrol - school resource, court, community engagement, narcotics, special investigations, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, K-9 and Oakland County SWAT.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Every other weekend off is the whole point of a twelve-hour rotation and the hardest thing to keep track of, because the weekend that is yours moves through the year rather than repeating. BlueShifts holds the fortnight and fills the months ahead, so the next free Saturday is a date on a screen instead of a count on your fingers.
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Where the figure comes from
Checked 2 September 2026. City of Auburn Hills — Memorandum of Understanding with the Police Officers' Labor Council/Patrol, Section 21 Wages — "January 1, 2026: Start/$33.27 hour" — open the source document
Class: Patrol Officer, Start step. The City's MOU with the Police Officers' Labor Council/Patrol replaces the wage chart in Appendix A, Section 21 of the CBA (which expires 31 December 2027) and prints four dated ladders: 2025 current at $27.77, 5 April 2025 at $32.30, 1 January 2026 at $33.27 and 1 January 2027 at $34.10, each with one, two and three-year steps above. The current start is $33.27 an hour. THE MULTIPLIER IS THE CITY'S OWN AND IS PROVED AGAINST ITS OWN PUBLISHED FIGURES: the City's recruiting page states 2026 top base pay of $96,616 and 2027 of $99,036, both 'includes 80-hour annual holiday check', and the MOU's three-year rates for those years are $44.73 and $45.85. 44.73 x 2,160 = $96,616.80 and 45.85 x 2,160 = $99,036.00 exactly - 2,080 hours plus the 80-hour holiday check. The start step on that same basis is 33.27 x 2,160 = $71,863.20; on bare 2,080 hours it is $69,201.60. Trainee class: NO separate grade - the MOU has one Patrol Officer ladder. Prior sworn service is NOT required: the qualification is graduation from, or a plan to attend, an MCOLES-certified academy, and the MOU handles experience through the transfer and rotation rule rather than a separate entry rate. No employee reaches the top of scale before completing three years of full-time service. City's own MOU, checked 2 September 2026.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
Entry pay through 2027
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where Auburn Hills sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $33,280 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Auburn Hills starts at $71,863, so $3,077 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Auburn Hills Police Department officer make?
Auburn Hills Police Department starts a new officer on $71,863 a year, about $34.55 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from City of Auburn Hills — Memorandum of Understanding with the Police Officers' Labor Council/Patrol, Section 21 Wages — "January 1, 2026: Start/$33.27 hour".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Michigan?
It ranks #4 of 41 agencies we have verified in Michigan — 37 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #754 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,596 above, and against other municipal agencies $3,078 above.
What shifts do Auburn Hills Police Department officers work?
The City lists the schedule with the money on its own recruiting page: "Rotating 12-hour shifts with every other weekend off", alongside 2026 top base pay of $96,616, three years to top pay, a take-home gym on duty and an indoor range. The same page names the specialty routes off patrol - school resource, court, community engagement, narcotics, special investigations, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force, K-9 and Oakland County SWAT. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Auburn Hills Police Department side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in MI
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Auburn | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Troy Police Department | Municipal | 110 | $78,224 | +$6,361 | #503 |
| 2 | Grand Rapids Police Department | Municipal | 299 | $77,467 | +$5,604 | #524 |
| 3 | Wyoming Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $75,400 | +$3,537 | #601 |
| 5 | Sumpter Township Police Department | Municipal | 18 | $71,732 | −$131 | #766 |
| 6 | Lincoln Charter Township Police Department | Municipal | — | $71,696 | −$167 | #768 |
| 7 | Macomb County Sheriff's Office | County | 274 | $71,098 | −$765 | #801 |
| 8 | Muskegon Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $69,888 | −$1,975 | #875 |
| 9 | Livonia Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $69,784 | −$2,079 | #878 |
| 10 | Dearborn Police Department | Municipal | 186 | $69,080 | −$2,783 | #908 |
| 11 | Plymouth Township Police Department | Municipal | 33 | $68,140 | −$3,723 | #961 |
| 12 | Oscoda Township Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $68,140 | −$3,723 | #962 |
| 13 | Northville Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $65,956 | −$5,907 | #1,097 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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